The present invention relates to medical devices and, in particular, to a blood vessel harvesting device.
Many modern medical procedures require harvesting blood vessels from one part of a person's body and using the harvested vessel in another part of the same person's body. For example, in coronary artery bypass surgery a blood vessel from the person having the bypass is harvested and then used to perform the bypass. Processes where a donor and recipient of the blood vessel is typically referred to as an “autologous” procedure.
In such procedures it is common to utilize either open or endoscopic vein harvesting techniques. Both of these harvesting techniques, unfortunately, typically can cause progressive intimal hyperplasia of the harvested blood vessel due to the stretching and other manipulation of the blood vessel required to harvest the vessel. Progressive intimal hyperplasia is known to contribute to blood vessel graft failure. Such failure may occur whether the procedure is an autologous procedure or in cases where the blood vessel is harvested from a donor and provided to a recipient.